Cuban refugees fight odds, gain prosperity in U.S.

1980 Cuban boatlift family enjoys hard-earned successRefugees fight the odds and gain prosperity in U.S.

JOHN PAIN, Associated Press

Published 5:30 am, Sunday, April 17, 2005

MIAMI - When Isidoro Vilarino fled Cuba with his wife and two young children in the 1980 Mariel boatlift, he was like most of the other 125,000 refugees — destitute, with few job skills and only the clothes on his back.

A quarter century later, Vilarino reminisced about his struggle to beat the odds while sitting at a table in his La Casita restaurant near Miami's Little Havana neighborhood.

"I came with a lot of dreams and aspirations," he recalled. "But I didn't think we would arrive at this point."

Back in Cuba, Vilarino worked on his father's livestock farm in the rural mountain town of Buey Arriba.

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Life was comfortable until Fidel Castro nationalized Cuban land and his father's farm in the early 1960s. As a teenager, Vilarino had to quit school and go to work in a bar. The family eventually got a small piece of the farm back, but it wasn't enough.

"We were like prisoners on that piece of land," said Vilarino, 57.

He jumped at the opportunity to leave for Key West in the boatlift. At the time, many people said the so-called "Marielitos" would never amount to anything. Vilarino, his wife, Elena, and his children, Isidoro Antonio and Annia, left Cuba on May 27, 1980, on an overcrowded boat. They arrived in Key West a day later, and he quickly realized that the journey still wasn't finished.

"We all arrived here without even knowing where we were going to stay. A strange country, not knowing the language. We didn't have any family already here," he said.

They stayed with friends at first. But soon, Vilarino and two of his brothers who also left during the boatlift decided to have their families live together for about a year to save "every last penny."

Vilarino's first job on the way to prosperity wasn't glamorous — he packed oranges into crates. At a time when many Mariel refugees were shunned by businesses as deranged criminals, Vilarino was lucky to get a job by a fortunate coincidence: The packing company's owner knew his father in Cuba.

"When he found out about us, he said, 'Call them, find them and give every one of them a job,' " Vilarino recalled.

The work was tedious. The brothers knew they wouldn't achieve their dreams this way.

"We always had it in our heads to do something and get ahead. We didn't always want to work for other people," Vilarino said.

The brothers decided to pool their money and open a fruit store about a year and a half later in West Palm Beach, about 60 miles north of their homes in Miami. They had just $2,800 to start the business.

Business was OK, but the high cost of keeping the shelves stocked meant they didn't earn that much money. The brothers started brainstorming.

In 1984, they opened a Cuban restaurant near Fort Lauderdale.

The only problem for Vilarino: He had always depended on his mother or his wife to cook.

"I didn't know how to make white rice or even fry an egg," he said with a laugh.

Vilarino spent much of his time in the kitchen, learning how to make Cuban staples such as shredded beef, plantains and fried cassava.

A few years later, Vilarino was confident enough in his culinary skills to try his hand in Little Havana, in the heart of the Cuban exile community. He bought a run-down place called La Casita in a forgotten strip mall, this time without his brothers. But he would still get help from his family.

Annia and Isidoro Antonio knew the struggles that their parents were going through to provide for them. So they were eager to help at the restaurant.

The family eventually opened four other La Casita restaurants, which Vilarino sold about two years ago.

As for the original La Casita, it serves about 400 people a day and is managed by Annia. Vilarino and his son run other family companies that buy real estate and develop homes.

Many Cuban-Americans talk fondly of moving back to their homeland when Castro is gone. But Vilarino says he only wants to visit when that day comes.

"I have never regretted for even a minute having come to this country," he said.